Fair Territory: WILD AL East, NL BEAST, Inside the Trade Deadline

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Bear Territory, our second post deadline edition. We want to welcome our new friends watching on NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBC Sports Bay Area in California. Now the dust has settled, the smoke has cleared. There are no more trades. I've even dried out from a weekend in Bristol, Tennessee. So we're just going to talk about baseball this morning. We're going to talk about the Pennant races, and we're going to get into it the ALE East in particular, and then the entire National League. The ALE East is rather interesting, to say the least. Right now, the Blue Jays have finally slowed down a little bit. They have lost six of eight since winning I don't know nineteen of twenty three. They were on an incredible role. They had a good deadline, added Sir Anthony Dominguez and Louis Arland to the bullpen. Shane Bieber potentially to the rotation. He will be back. He's on a rehabilitation assignment right now, coming off Tommy Johnson. I'm a little tempered in my expectations for him because we've seen with Alcndra the difficulties a pitcher can have coming off Tommy john with inconsistency. But Bieber has been very good on his rehab assignment, so all good there. The Blue Jays still are in command in this division. The Red Sox, though, are coming fast. They just swept Carlos Correa and the Astros at Fenway Park. They're seven to one in their last eight home series. They've been really good, and they've done this with Giolito and Brian Bao kind of coming into their own in the rotation, with Roman Anthony emerging as a star, Trevor Story bouncing back, a lot of good things happening. The team that I'm questioning in this division, frankly is the New York Yankees. And we've seen with the Yankees some really interesting things. To say the least, I think their fans would have a few other choice words for that besides interesting. They were just swept by the Marlins in Miami. Swept by the Marlins coming off their deadline high in which most observers, including myself, thought their deadline was really good. Well, you get swept by the Marlins, things aren't so great. And listen to what Derek Jeter had to say on the Fox broadcast Saturday, and he talked about the Yankees. His former team Alex Rodriguez talked about the Yankees. What they said was largely what I wrote about I don't know two weeks ago, relative to the Yankees and the lack of accountability regarding their sloppy play. Here's Jeter, listen up.

00:02:35
Speaker 2: They make way too many mistakes, way too many mistakes, and you can't get away making that number of mistakes against great teams. It just doesn't happen. You can't continue to do it. You have to clean it up. I mean, it's that simple. There's no excuses. You have to play better. If you don't play better, you're not going to go very far.

00:02:54
Speaker 1: Now, the Yankees, if you go to Fangrafts this morning, still have an eighty eight percent chance of making the play eight percent. So they're looking pretty good. But they might not have one of the home field advantage playoff spots, the home field advantage playoffs spot the top seed. They're looking at the fifth seed right now, and maybe the sixth the way the Red Sox are coming. So, yes, the Yankees still look good for the playoffs, but I'm not even so sure that is secure. The way they're playing. I want to show you the wildcard standings now in the American League, because they're getting rather I don't know tight to say the least. In the wildcard standings, you've got the Red Sox with a two game lead, the Yankees with just a half game lead over the Mariners for the third spot, and then the Rangers two games back of the Mariners, two and a half back of the Yankees. Now, I know when Fangress does their playoff odds and calculations, it's based on strength of schedule, strength of roster, how a team is playing. It's all formula. But if you're watching the games, if you're watching the way the Yankees are playing, I don't know that you're thinking two and a half game lead over the Texas Rangers, who are starting to play better, who acquired Merrill Kelly at the deadline, strengthening their great strength, their starting pitching and their rotation and bullpen overall, And then you wonder are they going to be able to hang on the New York Yankees. I'm not sure the answer to that is yes. It's going to be a very interesting couple of months. Luis Hell came back yesterday. He was inconsistent, not great, not surprised in coming off an injury. This is what happens. And the Yankees, like most teams, did not add a starter at the deadline. So could they be the odd team out come October? In the American League? I believe they can be, and they need to start playing better and they need to start doing it quickly. Now, the American League is a much different situation than the National In the American League, we still have I'm sorry, the National League is a much different situation than the American Let's get this straight. In the National League, you have races that are essentially decided. In the American League, we still have some question in the AL East, some question in the AL West. Right the Astros lead the Mariners by I think two and a half games. The Rangers are about four and a half back. There's still some things going on there. In the National League, we have the playoff teams decided. We don't have the division races decided. And that is what's so interesting in the NL right now. The drama in the NL, as I said, is in the divisions. The Mets just a half game behind the Phillies, the Cubs two games behind the Brewers and the Padres now just three games behind the Dodgers, and the Padres, of course, have loaded up in a big way. The Dodgers didn't do much at the deadline, but they've injured players coming back, injured players who are back kind of trying to find their form, Struggling players like Freddie Freeman coming into their own a little bit again. Monkey bets were still waiting for him to ignite. So these races are going to be fascinating down the stretch, and it all revolves around seating and home field advantage for the top two teams. All of that. I'm not sure how it's going to play out, but it's going to be really interesting. The only possible wild card scenario you have is the Reds. The Reds are four games back of the Padres. I don't see that happening. I watched the Reds in Bristol, Tennessee the last couple of days and offensively they are still just way short. So each race will have a life of its own. In the NL East, the Padres, I'm sorry in the analyst, the Phillies just adding Johan Durant closer. Finally, the Phillies have again a big time closer, and we saw in his first couple of games the impact Duran can have. And I'm not just talking about his entrance music at Citizens Bank Park. He is a bona fide, legit lid inning weapon. He changes the Phillies. Phillies still have some offensive questions, but they've added Harrison Bader that's going to help them. The Mets still like the Mets. Some people believe the Mets are a team still capable of going to the World Series. I wonder about their rotation. They're okay with Senga and Peterson and Manaya, but Holmes is fading a little bit now. Frankie Montas we saw that act yesterday, I don't know that we're going to see it again for a while. They have some prospects that they can bring up Nolan MacLean, Brandon Sproute, but their rotation, in my view, is a little bit shaky. They fix their bullpen at the deadline with Hellsley and company. They're going to be good in the bullpen, no doubt about that. Their offense has the capability of being really good. But the nun least is going to be a dog fight until the end. Same with the NL Central the Brewers. Here's some astonishing things about the Brewers. Now, Okay, over the weekend, they swept the Nationals thirty eight runs in the three games. It's almost thirteen runs per game. Right now. The Brewers, the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that is light on power, is fourth in the major leagues in run per game, fourth in scoring. It's incredible. They're twenty second in home runs per game. So they're doing it in their Brewers' way, contact and all the different things that they do on the basis. It's really impressive. They're also second in rotation e Ray, so the Cubs are going to have their hands full trying to catch the Brewers. They didn't add a starter at the deadline. We're going to be questioning their rotation until the end. Two and then there is the NL West, in which the Padres have added and added and added. We've seen them address numerous holes their offense. Loriano and O'Hearn coming over from Baltimore. They're bullpen Mason Miller, their rotation, JP Sears and Nester Cortez Junior. They are looking like a team now that has solved almost all of their problems Freddy for meen coming over to catch. So they look like a team that is pretty complete right now, a team with a very easy schedule going forward the rest of the season, a team that looks capable to me of catching the Dodgers. We're gonna see how it plays out, and we're gonna see if the Dodgers can finally turn it on, because they have not turned it on the whole season. They've been kind of coasting. They know they're going to be in the playoffs. They've got a bit of a World Series Championship hangover, just from the way the pitching is used. It always happens that way. When the pitchers are used so heavily in October, it kind of carries over into the next year. We've seen that with their injuries. So the division races in the NL, they're going to be fascinating and they're going to be a lot of fun down the stretch. We'll be right back with the Inside Dish. I'll be talking about the trade deadline and covering it right after this. It's summertime.

00:09:39
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00:10:43
Speaker 4: Well, all right?

00:10:47
Speaker 1: Tip it out for the inside dish. The part of the show we talk about maybe a story of written trend in the game, something else going on. And today I'm going to talk about covering the trade deadline. A lot of people are always curious about this, what it's like, So I'll try to explain as best I can. This trade deadline was somewhat unusual. We saw fifty trades five zero fifty trades in the last thirty one hours. Now, that's a lot, especially since many executives were predicting about a month out that this deadline was going to be a dud. Fifty trades in thirty one hours. Now. What I often tell people about the deadline is that when you're covering it, when I'm covering it anyway, I feel like I'm drowning. There is so much happening, so much I'm looking into so much I'm writing. I'm not just reporting transactions on X. I'm writing stories, often in collaboration with other writers at The Athletic. They're not always long stories, but we're trying to give insight into what is happening, into discussions. We wrote about the Mason Miller trade a couple of days before it happened. We said the Padres were interested. We wrote about the Astros pursuing Dylan Cees. All of these different things are going on, so I'm texting constantly, not just with sources, but with writers on our staff, trying to figure out what the heck is going on, how to proceed, what to do, what to report. And I'll also make or take an occasional phone call. It's not often, but once or twice, three times, four times in those last two days or so, I'll be on the phone because I need some specific information or something that maybe can't be related on text. I don't have many actual conversations in those two days before the deadline or before the deadline, I don't even really even talk to my wife. So basically I don't leave the house. And at one point on deadline day, and this is a funny story, I got up to get something to eat. It was many hours into it, I hadn't eat.

00:12:53
Speaker 5: I get up to get something to eat, bring my laptop into the kitchen, put it down on the table, walk over to the refrigerator. I walked back to the laptop and in that time, Brian McTaggart of MLB dot com he covers the Astros, reported this The Astros have agreed to a deal to reacquire Carlos Kara in a trade with the Twins so.

00:13:14
Speaker 1: Basically walked away. It could not have been even thirty seconds. And look what happened. That's how frantic that last day was, and it was totally crazy. Now people often ask me if I sleep in those final days before the deadline, and the answer should be yes. Because the deals don't happen round the clock. There is I don't know, a five or six hour period generally speaking, most nights. Sometimes they do happen around the clock, but it's pretty rare. There's usually a five or six seven hour period where it's quiet, or at least they don't have to be pursuing anything. The problem for me is I got so much adrenaline flowing. I'm thinking about so much my head is kind of exploding that it's really hard to sleep. So the reason I'm not sleeping is more so the excitement and the anxiety I guess you'd call it, than actual things happening and actually not having time to sleep. There's time. I just have a really tough time shutting my mind down.

00:14:15
Speaker 4: Now.

00:14:15
Speaker 1: This is my twenty fifth year as a National Baseball writer. Every year when it's over, I think to myself, Man, I can't cover another deadline. I can't go through this again. It's not physically hard in the sense there I'm doing anything. I'm basically just sitting at a desk or standing at a desk. I have a standing desk. But it's hard in the sense that you're locked in for so long and it's mentally draining. So I always say that, and of course I keep coming back for more. Now I can't say the process is fun, not when it's so intense and difficult and exhausting. But the action, well, fans, media executives, managers, coaches, players, that's what we all live for, right, We all love the deadline and all the crazy things that can happen. And I tell you, guys, every year I must stud like a broken record. There will be things that happen that make your head spin that you didn't anticipate, that you didn't know was coming this year. What happened that fell along those lines. The Rafael Devers trade for sure, the Carlos Corea trade for sure, Mason Miller and the Twins deconstruction, so all that stuff. That's why we keep so much interest in the deadline, why we have so much fun with it. Now I do love looking back and writing about what happened, and that can be in the immediate aftermath, in the weeks and months ahead, even the years down the line, and after this particular deadline passed. Dan Hayes and I Dan Hayes, the Twins writer from The Athletic, we combined on this story. Inside the final hours of the Carlos Korea ear and the start of a rebuild for the Twins, we had some information that we thought we wanted to get out there immediately. There was a very interesting narrative around the Twins, so Dan and I wrote that story. We combined on it. We got great editing from Mark Kurrigg and Chris Strauss, two of our editors, because frankly, we were fried and it wasn't as coherent as it should have been, so they helped us put it together and did a great job. And that night I ended it up, I don't know, going to bed at something like three am Eastern with a six am or so wake up call to go to Bristol, Tennessee for the Speedway Classic the next day. So even the night after the deadline, I didn't really sleep. But at the same time, this is what we live for, right and after this show and after I write one more thing today. Yes, I'm gonna finally take some downtime, take some time off, and I'll be back with you. I don't know, maybe a week or so. Maybe I won't come back. Maybe I'll just be too tired. Nah, doubtful. Love the deadline, love reporting on it, writing about it. It just takes a little bit out of it. All right, Stay tuned for Grilly Ken. We'll be right back after this.

00:17:12
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00:17:24
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00:17:26
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00:17:31
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00:17:32
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00:17:34
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00:17:40
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00:17:45
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00:17:46
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00:17:49
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00:18:17
Speaker 1: All right. Time Now for Grill and Ken, the part of the show where I answer your questions. Let's get right to them. First question comes from a wanderer who asks, is Cohen the better owner in New York and maybe the best? Well, I would say right now, he is the better owner in New York. Now, how Steinbrenner gets a little bit of a bad rap at times for not spending money when the Yankees have one of the highest payrolls in the game every single year. But Cohen has certainly made an impact, a Steinbrenner type impact, a George Steinbrenner type impact, in his time as Mets owner, and he's hired one of the best executives in the game. David st I would counter that Brian Cashman still is in that category as well, even though Yankee fans would disagree. And the Mets are running right now like the way of high revenue team should run. Their model is the Dodgers, and they're getting real close to being what the Dodgers are in LA, not just a team that spends money on payroll, but a team that also develops farm system products and gets the most out of young players as well. The Mets were in great position at this deadline to make the trade they did because their farm system is finally at the point where it's producing players other teams want. So. Yes, he is the best owner in New York right now, the best owner in baseball, that's debatable. Certainly you can make the case he is. Obviously in LA, You've got a pretty good owner there too, Mark Walter with the Gouggenheim Group, and there are some others as well. But Cohen has done a really good job transforming the Mets from a team that was kind of an industry laughingstock into one that is absolutely formidable and feared the next question. This one comes from let's see now Mike g who asked was a karma for the Cubs to blow eighth and ninth inning leads in back to back games this weekend. Fielbarr and Palencia have been nailed, so nothing against them, but they needed more help. Yes, they did strike out in their quest for a late inning reliever. Now, the bigger quest was for a starting pitcher, preferably a controllable starting pitcher, and they didn't get that, and they didn't get the reliever. The prices for relievers were admittedly high. The bullpen, though for the most part with the Cubs, has not been a problem this year, and they did add Andrew Kittrick, who is a quality reliever, and they've had a pretty good run with what they've had, and Craig Counsel does a remarkable job as a manager putting the pieces of a bullpen together. So that, to me is still not my biggest concern with the Cubs. My biggest concern is the rotation and will it be enough, Will they get anything back, or will they get any contribution from Asad Tyane is coming back, but everybody else has to stay healthy because they're in a kind of compromise spot Like a lot of teams, if one of their starters goes down, they didn't want to pay the price for a controllable starter. No team did. Really, the best starters traded were Rentals, Merrill Kelly, Shane Bieber, and I'm missing one, but oh, Charlie Morton, I would say would fit in that list. So those are the guys who were traded. Our contrad didn't go, Mitch Kewar didn't go, Mackenzie Gore didn't go, and on and on. All right, finally, let's go. We got one more question, at least, let's see. Uncle KRV asked, will the Astros be out of first place by the end of this week? Also, I think they will be under five hundred by the end of August. I don't know who you're root for, uncle KRV, but it sounds like it's a little wishful thinking on your part. Maybe you're a Mariners Fanngers fan. The Mariners certainly have gotten better with the additions of a Johanno Suarez and Josh Naylor, and of course Caleb Ferguson in their bullpen. The Rangers got better getting Merrill Kelly as I just mentioned, and making some bullpen improvements as well. Do I think either of those teams is going to catch the Astros. I'm not sure. And the Astros still have fromber Valdez and Hunter Brown at the top of the rotation. They still have one of the best bullpens in the league. Jeremy Pagna is back. Now, They've got Correa, who has not had a great year by any stretch of the imagination. But they still have that Astros thing about them, and until they are knocked off, until proven otherwise, they must be considered the favorite. And likewise, until the Mariners show that they can be the kind of team that wins a division that is really nails down the stretch, it's hard to have faith that they can do that. We're looking at track records, we're looking at history here. Suarez has come over, he has not made a huge difference so far, two for seventeen with a double. Now you might say ken small sample size correct small sample size rental players when you acquire them, they are operating in a small sample environment. So I'm sure Suarez will get it back going again. But it's going to be really interesting to see if they can maintain where they are and just kind of get to the point where they are a real threat to the Astros in that al West. All right, let's take one more question before we go. This one comes from d Train riot Maker. I still like the Shelby Miller edition. He isn't Duran or Bernard, etc. But he has had a good year as long as he can remain healthy. Shelby Miller went to the Brewers. Shelby Miller has a right form strain. He's working his way back on a rehab assignment. He has not been activated yet. The Brewers when they made this move, that was a serious gamble. They took on the Jordan Montgomery part of the contract essentially paid two and a half million dollars, and that is okay. They didn't have to sacrifice any prospects, and it's worth the risk of taking on a Miller. But you do not know if he's going to really be able to contribute for you. So that's the concern there. If Shelby Miller comes back, all good, But we'll see if he comes back and what he is when he comes back. All right, I want to thank you everyone for watching and listening. A lot of rizzow hosts Thursday with a special guest host to be named. That's right, I'm gonna be off. We're twelve thirty live on YouTube. I'll be off the grid. So everyone have a great week, great next week as well, and we'll be enjoying baseball and Pennant Race baseball the rest of the way. Thank you.

00:24:46
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